The officers they wuz just dumb-foundered at the sight of a woman with a bask waist on in that position––a bein’ 95 court-martialed for desertion––and her speech dumb-foundered ’em still more, so I spoze; I hearn it from one who wuz there.
Sez Arvilly to ’em, and they wuz drew up in battle array as you may say, dressed up in uniform and quite a few on ’em, the Stars and Stripes behind ’em, and the mantilly of the law drapin’ ’em in heavy folds. And I don’t spoze that through her hull life Arvilly wuz ever so eloquent as on that occasion. All her powers of mind and heart wuz electrified by the dretful shock and agony she had underwent, and her words fell like a hard storm of lightenin’ and hail out of a sky when it is just stored full of electrical power and has got to bust out.
Sez Arvilly: “You men represent the force and power of the govermunt that falsely sez it is the voice of the people; we two represent the people. As you are the force and power and will of the law, we are the endurance, the suffering. You decide on a war. When did a woman ever have any voice in saying that there should be a war? They bear the sons in agony that you call out to be butchered; their hearts are torn out of their bosoms when they let their husbands, sons and lovers go into the hell of warfare, and you tax all her property to raise money to help furnish the deadly weapons that kill and cut to pieces the warm, living, loving forms that they would give their lives for.
“But you men decide on a war, as you have on this. You say it wuz from motives of philanthropy and justice; you drag us, the people, out of peaceful, happy homes to leave all we love, to face mutilation, agony and death; you say your cause wuz just, I say it is a war of revenge––a war of conquest.”
Why it fairly made goose pimples run over me when I hearn on’t. Sassin’ the govermunt, she wuz––nothin’ more nor less. But she went on worse than ever.
“You say that it wuz to give freedom to the people of Cuba. Look at the millions of your own wimmen enslaved 96 in legal fetters! You say it wuz to protect the wimmen and children of Cuba from the cruelty and brutality of unscrupulous rulers. Look at the wimmen and children of your own country cowering and hiding from crazed drunken husbands, sons and fathers. More misery, murder, suicides, abuse and suffering of every kind is caused by the saloon every day of the year in the United States than ever took place in Cuba in twice the same time, and you not only stand by and see it, but you take pay from the butchers for slaughtering the innocents! You miserable hypocrites, you!” Sez Arvilly, “I would talk about pity and mercy, you that know no pity and no mercy for your own wimmen and children.
“You pose before foreign nations as a reformer, a righter of wrongs, when you have cherished and are cherishing now the most gigantic crime and wrong that ever cursed a people; turning a deaf ear to the burdened and dying about you; wives, mothers, daughters––for whose safety and well-being you are responsible––have told you that the saloon killed all the manhood and nobility of their husbands, sons, and fathers; made the pure, good men, who loved and protected them, into cold-hearted brutes and demons who would turn and rend them––still you would not hear. You have seen the dretful procession of one hundred thousand funerals pass before you every year, slain by this foe that you pamper and protect.
“Lovers of good laws have told you that the saloon blocked up the way to every reform and wuz the greatest curse of the day; still you threw your mighty protection around the system and helped it on. The most eminent doctors have told you that drunkenness ruined the bodies of men; Christian clergymen told you that it ruined their souls, and that the saloon was the greatest enemy the Church of Christ had to contend with to-day; that when by its efforts and sacrifices it saved one soul from ruin, the 97 saloon ruined two to fill the place of that one who wuz saved, and still you opholded it.
“Petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of the best people of the land have been sent to you, but these petitions, weighted down with the tears and prayers of these people, have been made a jest and a mock of by you. And strangest, most awful of sights––incredible almost to men and angels––this govermunt, that sot out as a reformer to Christianize Cuba and the Philippines, have planted there this heaviest artillery of Satan, the saloon, to bind the poor islanders in worse bondage and misery than they ever dremp on. Hain’t you ashamed of yourself! You fool and villain!” (Oh! dear me! Oh, dear suz! To think on’t; Arvilly wuz talkin’ to the govermunt, and callin’ it a fool and villain! The idee! Why, it wuz enough to skair anybody most to death!) I spoze it made a great adoo. I spoze that the men who represented the govermunt wuz too horrified to make a reply. Arvilly always did go too fur when she got to goin’. But it can’t be denied that she had great reason for her feelin’s, for the strongest argument wuz still to come. I spoze she got almost carried away by her own talk and feelin’s, for all of a sudden they said she lifted her long bony hand and arm––Arvilly always wuz kinder spare in flesh––she lifted up her arm and her bony forefinger seemed to be follerin’ the lines of some words writ up there on the wall, sez she slowly, in a awful voice:
“My country! thou are weighed in the balance and found wanting!”
It wuz indeed thrillin’, but after a minute’s silence she went on: “Look at me!” sez she, pintin’ that same forefinger first at herself and then at the tall veiled figger of the young girl beside her––“Look at us; we, the people, represent to you another of your favorite reforms, the Canteen, that product of civilization and Christianity you transplanted from our holy shores to the benighted tropics. How many petitions have you had wet with the tears of wives 98 and mothers, weighted down with their prayers to close this gateway to hell. But no, for a price, as Judas sold his Lord, you have trafficked in human souls and will do so. And you are the power––you control; we are the people––we suffer. We leave all we love, we go out and fight your battles when you tell us to, we face mutilation and death for you––isn’t that enough? No; besides the foe in front you set us aginst, you introduce a foe into our midst that is a million times as fatal and remorseless. The foe in front only aims at our bodies; this foe, before it kills our bodies, kills honor, manhood, all that is noble and worthy to be loved––a devilish foe indeed, but by your command it is let loose upon us; we are the people, we must endure it. Look at me!”––agin she pinted that bony forefinger at herself––“I had a husband I loved as well as the gracious lady in the White House loves her husband. He wuz a good man. He thought he owed a duty to his country. He went to fight her battles at her call. He might have escaped Spanish bullets, but not this foe this Christian govermunt set aginst him. In a low Canteen, a vile drinking den, rented by you for the overthrow of men’s souls and bodies, in a drunken brawl a bullet aimed by a crazed brain for another poor ruined boy reached my husband’s faithful heart, faithful to the country that slew him, not for patriotism or honor, but for a few pennies of money––not even the thirty pieces of silver Judas earnt for betraying his Lord. This bullet wuz sent from the hand of a young man, a college graduate, one of the noblest, brightest and best of men until this foe our govermunt set for him vanquished him. He got into a quarrel with another drunken youth, another victim of the Canteen, and meant to shoot him, but the unsteady hand sent it into the heart of my husband, who went into that vile place thinkin’ he could appease the quarrel. This young man was shot for your crime and here is his widow,” and turning to Waitstill, she said, “Lift up your vail; let them look upon us, the people.”
99
The young girl drew back her vail and a face of almost perfect beauty wuz disclosed, but white as death. The big dark eyes wuz full of sorrow and despair, sadder than tears. She simply said:
“I loved him––he was murdered––I have come to denounce his murderers.”
Her voice wuz low, but the words fell like drops of blood, so vivid, so full were they of the soul of her being.
“Yes,” sez Arvilly, “and you are his murderer.